In Blind Faith
by simply-aly
Summary: After being sent to Earth, Bellamy and Clarke discover that they were married to each other nearly three years ago on the Ark as part of a Unity Program. The rules of the Ark no longer apply on the ground, but does their marriage?
1. The Beginning of a Tale

Chapter 1: The Beginning of a Tale

Clarke is fifteen when she is pulled aside by the Committee.

Days before, her mother had received a summons by Chancellor Jaha—which wasn't out of the ordinary—but she came back looking upset. Clarke tried to ask why, but she wouldn't answer. That night, she could hear her parents arguing. She isn't able to hear much, but she does hear a few snippets. "She's only fifteen!" and "danger" from her mother, interspersed with "duty," "she's strong," and "no choice" from her father. She hears her mother talk about pulling strings with Thelonious, but her father forbids this.

Of course, she's worried, and Clarke has trouble sleeping that night, but the next day, while her mother remains angry, her father assures her everything is fine, and she believes him.

Three days later, her mother is escorting her out of Earth Skills class. Abby Griffin's face remains expressionless as she brings her daughter to a room in Go-Sci that Clarke's never been in before. With her mother on the council, and being brought up to take her place some day, Clarke's gotten something of a grand tour many times before, but she's never been here.

Clarke and Abby sit down in the two chairs on one side of a table, and wait for the person they're meeting. She looks around the room for some sort of clue about what this is about. She wonders if she's done something wrong, if she's being reprimanded. The oft repeated phrase _all crimes are capitol crimes_ rings in her head as she wracks her mind for some small infraction she may have committed. Even if that were the case, though, she can't imagine why they wouldn't just arrest her. Isn't that how it goes? They don't get trials—not really—and certainly not like this.

Finally, an older red-headed woman enters the room, closing the door behind her. In her hand is a tablet, and Clarke is able to peer at it enough to see her own picture staring back at her. The woman smiles at her. "Clarke Griffin," she says, holding out her hand. Hesitantly, Clarke stands and shakes hands with the woman. "My name is Tracy Cameron, head of the Cohabitation Committee. You have been chosen."

Clarke's eyes go wide and she thinks she forgets how to breathe for a moment. She barely registers sitting down once more as the woman—Tracy—gives her the standard talk about the Committee. Everyone's heard it before—all the time, but it's so rare to be chosen that most people put it out of their minds.

According to tradition—or lore, depending on whom you ask—the Ark formed the Committee after about fifteen years in space. The Chancellor of the time noticed a lot of dissention between the members of the different stations, typically because of class differences. The upper class fought with the lower class and the middle class fought with themselves, until all of the stations were fighting over recourses, privileges, and status. To combat this, the Committee was formed. They were chosen to pick different young people from each station to enter into a union with another from a separate station. The goal of the Cohabitation Program was to increase unity and cohesiveness amongst the members of the Ark.

"Over the past eighty years, we have succeeded in pairing over three hundred young couples," Tracy is saying. "If, however, once you reach the age of majority, you are allowed to opt out of the program. Your name will not have been disclosed to anyone, and you would be free to continue on with your life as you always planned. We've only had 82 couples opt out in the last eighty two years."

Clarke doesn't point out that, that likely means one couple opts out each year. Instead, she asks, "What is required of me in the meantime?"

She doesn't look at her mother, but she can feel her tense up beside her.

"There is a ceremony," Tracy Cameron explains. "You and your chosen will be pledged to each other up until you reach the age of majority, at which point you must decide whether to meet him and stay in the program or opt out before meeting him. Up until that point, your only job is to act a model citizen—to not display any negative attitudes toward the other stations, to not abuse the power afforded you as a member of Alpha Station." She doesn't really need to ask anything more about the ceremony she mentioned—Cameron can be as vague as she wants but everyone already knows it's just as much a marriage as her parents' marriage is. The only difference being, she won't know her husband until she's eighteen—and that's only if she decides to stay married.

In spite of her misgivings, and in spite of the worried look on her mother's face, Clarke nods. "I'll do it," she says, knowing there isn't a choice. Given the information presented, she gathers that this meeting is really only a formality. They are going to perform this ceremony today; there is no way to stop it, just like her father had told her mother. She will do her duty, as she must.

Immediately after gaining her verbal consent, Tracy Cameron exits the room for a moment, only to reenter with another person, introduced to her as Turner Wood. In the ceremony, he stands in for her 'chosen' (a lovely, if romanticized, euphemism for her forced husband).

She speaks the generic vows and signs the generic documentation. She notices the side for her intended is blotted out so she can't see it. Truly, her only real clue about the identity of the man now her husband, if in name only, is the fact that, by Committee rules, he is not in Alpha station.

Lastly, she is given a ring, and a chain. Given that her identity as a chosen one must remain hidden, she isn't allowed to wear the metal band as normally dictated, so it must remain under her clothing, on the chain provided. Tracy had handed the ring and chain to her mother at first, but Abby had refused to take it, so Clarke took them from Tracy herself. She threaded the chain through the ring, and fastened it around her neck before pulling her hair out from under it and dropping it beneath her clothes.

She walks back home with her mother, glancing up at her mother's stern expression. Clarke wonders why she's so against this, why she didn't want Clarke to do it. Her mother wasn't in the program, Clarke's parents fell in love, but the program has been around for more than eighty years. She's seen how it works. She has to know there was never a choice to be made. And, really, if in three years she decides she doesn't want to go through with it, an annulment is drawn up, and she'll be able to go on like it never happened.

And that's how Clarke found herself married at fifteen; to someone she hasn't met, and doesn't yet know if she ever will.

-x-

Bellamy Blake is twenty when one of the guards hands him a tablet with a locked message on it. Most business on the Ark isn't really a secret from anyone else, and messages are passed on verbally or through the tablets, however, each citizen is given a passcode to unlock any confidential messages and files that are coded for them to open. He has never received one before, and watches the guard's retreating back for a moment before typing in his code numbers.

The message is simple in instruction but unclear as to its meaning. _Report to Go-Sci Section 8 Room 32c tomorrow at 1 o'clock pm._ There is no indication about the nature of this summons, which worries him.

He tells his mother and Octavia later that night. Aurora Blake's lips form a tight line, and her brows furrow.

"Is it about me?" Octavia wonders, "Do they know about me?"

Their mother shakes her head and pulls Octavia close to her, giving her a hug. "No, of course not," she answers. "If they knew about you, we wouldn't still be here together."

"They want something from you," Aurora continues, locking eyes with him. "I don't know what, but it must be serious."

Bellamy doesn't find this the least bit reassuring and has trouble sleeping that night. His eyes stay focused on his sister, and he watches her rhythmic breathing, hoping it isn't the last time he sees her sleep.

Later, while he navigates the Go-Sci station's intricate hallways in order to find Section 8, he tries to ignore the looks he receives from the workers. They all know he doesn't belong there without his guard uniform. He never would have gotten access to this part of the station were it not for his position as a Cadet or this summons, and seeing as he can't mention the summons to anyone, no one knows why he's here.

Eventually, a man comes in and introduces himself as Turner Wood. He tells Bellamy that he's from the Cohabitation Committee and that he's been chosen.

Bellamy isn't sure how much of the man's following speech he actually catches, because he's quite lost in his own thoughts as he finds himself nodding along with the man. It doesn't really matter though, he realizes. Wood couldn't possibly tell him much that he doesn't already know.

He's been chosen to be wed to someone—someone obviously not yet eighteen—as a waiting period after the ceremony is customary. Truly, it's their way of forcing the marriage to stick. Not many people can deny the marriage after spending years in its grip, being brought up to revere the chosen couples and honor their choice to continue forward for the good of the society. Bellamy had always likened it to some sort of Stockholm Syndrome.

He does wonder why they chose him, not someone younger—closer to her age. When he puts forth the question, Turner simply says, "You were the best candidate." And, if he were a romantic sort of person, he might be offended. As it is, he just wonders what that means. What qualified him for this program—revered and feared by the citizens of the Ark? Why him over others from Factory? This, however, he doesn't ask; he just nods his acceptance—not, of course, like he ever really had any.

Turner leaves the room shortly thereafter, after hearing a knock on the door, and Bellamy is left alone for at least five minuets. He isn't carrying around one of the tablets—his family doesn't have one, and he hasn't been issued one as a guard—so he isn't exactly sure about the time, but he can guess. When he comes back, a woman enters with him. She introduces herself as Tracy Cameron.

Turner Wood proceeds to read off the vows, and Bellamy speaks when required. Tracy Cameron stands in for his nameless and faceless wife, and within minuets, it's over.

He is given a ring and a chain and instructed to wear the ring at all times, but never where it is visible. His identity and that of his wife are protected knowledge up until she is legal age. Even that, however, is conditional, because if she decides to opt out of the program, he will be notified at some point in time about their divorce, but not who she was. Of course, they can't tell him right away, because it can't be impossible to locate someone who just turned eighteen on their birthday. He'll be afforded the same opportunity, of course, but only after her.

Bellamy threads the chain through the ring and fastens it around his neck, the new weight resting comfortably yet heavily under his shirt.

Not on duty that day, he finds himself walking back home. For obvious reasons, Bellamy knows he can't go around telling just anyone about this. The program values the privacy of its 'chosen' very highly, everyone knows this. He decides pretty quickly, though, that he's going to tell his mom and Octavia. They need to know.

When he breaks the news to them that night, Octavia's actually rather happy at first. "Can I see the ring, Bell?" she asks. Bellamy smiles ever so slightly as he tugs at the string until the ring is visible for the second time. He holds it out, and Octavia leans over and takes it in her hand, turning it around. When she's done, she drops it and it falls against his chest.

Bellamy looks to his mother as he tucks it away once more. "You'll have to opt out when she turns eighteen," she says without preamble. "No matter if she wants to continue with this marriage or not, you'll have to turn her away."

"Why?" Octavia asks. Bellamy has told her stories about the program before. Factory Station's Felicity Tomlin's marriage to Ben King from Alpha Station ten years ago was rather major. Everyone had been talking about it, and Bellamy had relayed a lot of it to Octavia in the form of stories.

"Another person in the family means another person who would know our secret," his mother says wisely. "And we can't afford for someone to know…someone we cannot control." Bellamy nods his understanding. Octavia must come first.

And that is how Bellamy finds himself married to someone he's never met, and likely never will.


	2. Decided

Chapter 2: Decided

Despite his mother's warnings, Bellamy finds himself contemplating his unseen wife quite often. When he's on duty, standing guard during important meetings or outside official rooms, he has time to wonder who she is and where she is at that moment. Did he pass her in the hallways that morning as he reported for duty? Did he see her in the mess hall the other night? He feels the weight of the ring more heavily as he stands guard.

Sometimes, in the months that follow his marriage, he speaks with Octavia about it directly, other times, he tells her historical anecdotes or myths with a similar premise. On one memorable occasion, he spends an evening entertaining her with the beginning of the tale of Cupid and Psyche.

Later that evening, he wonders if perhaps the story of a princess who was abducted in order to be married against her will to a God whom she wasn't allowed to lay eyes upon was too obvious a choice of allegory. Then, two days later, he receives his answer when Octavia asks "How long do you think it will be before you get to see your Psyche?"

Bellamy nearly spits out the little rations he has, and tries very hard not to look at his mother, whom he knows is glaring at him.

"Octavia," Aurora Blake reprimands, having understood the reference as well. "Bellamy is not going to ever see her, we've been over this."

Aurora Blake is, luckily, unaware of the conflicted look that pains Bellamy's face once this proclamation is uttered, and neither is she aware of the way Octavia looks at her brother.

So, despite the siblings' chastisement, when their mother leaves for the night—to go do whatever it is that allows them to know when the surprise inspections are and the slight extra rations they receive every once and awhile—it doesn't take much cajoling on Octavia's part for him to continue with the tale.

He tells her about Psyche being curious about who her husband is and how she disobeyed the order and looked upon him while he slept one night. He tells her how Cupid awoke when he was burned by the hot wax from her candle and caught her, and how he was so upset that she wouldn't trust him that he decided to punish her by leaving her forever.

"You said this was a happy story!" Octavia accused him when he stopped to tell her it was time to go to sleep.

Bellamy nods. "It is," he insists. "Sometimes, O, it takes some time to get to the happy part."

A week passes before Bellamy gets the chance to finish the tale. With a smile on his face, he tells his sister about the different tasks Psyche was given to complete to win back her husband. He tells Octavia that Psyche wasn't aware that her husband had been watching her, and helping her when he could, because he wanted her to succeed. However, because she couldn't complete the tasks herself, Aphrodite—Cupid's mother—would not let her see her husband.

"But if she couldn't do any of the tasks Aphrodite asked of her, did she never get to see him again, Bell?" Octavia asks.

The two are lying down in the dark of their room, Octavia partly shielded from the door by Bellamy, as a last resort if someone were to walk in with their mother that night.

Bellamy shakes his head. "Of course she gets to see him again," Bellamy says before finishing the story. Cupid, knowing that he wanted to be with his wife despite his mother's wishes and despite the fact that Psyche disobeyed his request, pleaded with Zeus, who persuaded Aphrodite, who allowed the two lovers to reunite, and they lived happily ever after, eventually having a daughter of their own.

"And what about you," Octavia wants to know afterward. "Do you think you'll get to live happily ever after with your Psyche?"

Bellamy just sighs. "I don't know, O," he answers, all the while having the sinking suspicion that his story won't be anything like the real one.

Life goes on, and upon receiving no summons about his wife, Bellamy continues his duties as normal. He still feels the weight of the ring around his neck, still sometimes has the urge to finger the ring, even when he's in plain view of others, but he tries his best not to think too much about her.

He still tells Octavia stories when she asks—has even repeated the story of Cupid and Psyche once when she was feeling really down—but he knows what he has to do, and he is trying to keep himself from feeling too much pain over the decision.

To distract himself, he throws himself into his work. Still a cadet—not yet a real guard, they always remind him—his options are limited, but he volunteers for late night shifts in Medical on days when his mom is at home to stay with Octavia.

It's really simple work. He just stands around, guards the medicine, and looks after the young medical volunteers who also are trying to get more hours by working the dead shifts. Nothing much happens. The patients in Medical are usually quiet, sedated, or occupied by the volunteers, so he just stands there, watching in case something were to happen. He doesn't expect anything to happen, as all the other cadets who rotate the shift with him say it's dead boring, but he needs the hours and the distraction.

For nearly a year, this is the case, then, one night in mid-July, a man walks into medical to visit his son. Visiting hours ended before Bellamy's shift begins, so he wasn't aware that the man had been there, nor had he known that the man hadn't yet left.

An hour into his shift, Bellamy hears rustling, but when he turns, he just sees the young blonde medical volunteer tending to a man who had cut himself somehow, being held for observation for the night. He returns to his post. Not but twenty minuets later, it happens.

The man Bellamy hadn't known was still there picks the lock on one of the cabinets and grabs something off the shelf.

Bellamy yells to him, tells him to put it down, and runs after him, but he's too late. By the time he catches the man, the medicine has already been given to the man's son, lying in a bed, alert enough only to take the pills.

The girl walks in then and surveys the scene—the boy in the bed, the cadet holding a man on the ground, and the bottle in his hand.

"Oh no," he hears her whisper, even as she presses the button, alerting the guards to a disturbance.

Bellamy isn't aware of what happens to the man after the guards take him away, but he could guess. Stealing medication is a crime, and all crimes are punished by death.

Bellamy finds himself on the roster for duty during the Unity Day dance in a little over two months, and an idea starts to form in his head. He doesn't know if it'll work, though, so he doesn't say anything at first. As the weeks go by, he forgets about the incident in medical, forgets about the man and the girl and the boy in the bed. His sole focus is that dance and what it could change.

He isn't aware until too late what it could change, and when he finds himself without a job, without a mother, and without a sister, Bellamy is stunned. He walks into his family's quarters that first night and cries for all he's lost, subconsciously clutching the ring in his hand.

For the first time, he thinks about that boy again. His father just wanted to do right by his son, and it got him killed. Bellamy only wanted to do right by his sister—to show her something of the world outside their small area they call home—and it got their mother killed, and will likely get her killed as well. He wonders about that girl who pressed that button. Does she feel as guilty for condemning that man as he does for condemning his mother and likely his sister?

His hand finds his ring once more, and he slides it back and forth against the chain. What does he have to lose now, with Octavia gone? Why can't he have her now?

-x-

Clarke's life doesn't change much, if she's being honest. The ring she now wears around her neck is a constant presence, and she thinks on it, and her as of yet unknown husband often, but it doesn't affect her life all that much.

Wells knows something's different. They've told each other everything their entire lives, and Clarke wonders if he can see the secret in her eyes. She isn't supposed to tell anyone, and she knows it, but sometimes she thinks it wouldn't be so bad to tell Wells. He'd keep her secret, she always reasons. He asks her sometimes, very discreetly, if something's different, or if something's happened, but she always tells him no. Clarke wants to say yes, to tell him that six months ago she got married, and is part of the Cohabitation Program, that she was chosen. Those times, she finds it hard not to reach for the chain around her neck.

She also notices the way Nico Santos looks at her in her classes. Before being chosen, she might have blushed, whispered to Wells about it, and let him cajole her into talking with him. Now, she avoids the boy at all costs. He's on a Go-Sci track, so her mother would have approved, but it isn't to be. Wells notices anyway, and teases her, and Clarke doesn't know how to tell him that she can't be with Nico, that she's technically married, so she talks to him.

Her mother does find out, and encourages it, despite knowing Clarke's reservations. Clarke just glares at her over dinner one night as she's saying that Nico's probably a nice boy and that she should give him a chance.

"I don't think I want him, though, Mom," Clarke says forcefully. "I think I want…well, I want what I already have." Her hand itches to reach for her ring. Her fingers twitch, and she can feel it resting delicately against her skin.

"You don't even know who he is!" her mother replies, her voice a little higher and a little more forceful that Clarke, or her father, thinks necessary. Jake tries to censure his wife, but she pays him no mind. "Nico's smart and kind, and you've known him for years."

The argument goes on until Clarke agrees to give him a chance. A week later, Nico's taking her to the stargazing room after dinner, and to the weekly movie they project for everyone. He tries to hold her hand, but she keeps pulling away, and all the while they watch the movie—one Clarke loves and has seen a million times—she remains distracted, the ring and chain a heavy weight on her heart.

She later reports to her mother that it wasn't going to work out, which she knew from the start, much like she knew her first kiss with her crush Cassie Porter when they were thirteen wasn't going to go much further. Cassie discovered she liked Meg Meyers more, and the two have been inseparable ever since. Clarke didn't mind then, just as she doesn't mind now.

About five months after the ceremony, Clarke is present for the announcement with everyone else. Glass from Alpha and Luke from Agro are a chosen couple who have both agreed to accept their bonding and stay together. Clarke has never been great friends with Glass, but she knows her, they're in the same circles. She can't help but feel both envious and hopeful when she watches the two. Glass looks so happy.

Her mother had seemed so disappointed in her those first few days, and Clarke still isn't sure why. Even if Abby Griffin could have appealed to the Chancellor for a pardon for her daughter, it wouldn't have been fair, and if anyone would have found out…well, Clarke hates to think of how that could have ended. The whole goal of the program, the whole problem they were trying to solve, could have reignited a thousand fold.

She's not unaware of the way others think of her. She's heard the whispers: "spoiled Alpha girl", "rich-bitch", "privileged brat", "councilor-in-training". None of it is new to her, and if anyone found out she somehow got out of the program in a non-standard way, the name-calling would never end, and would likely follow her into adulthood—into her career.

Clarke loves going to Medical with her mother. She loves watching her mother work—watching all the doctors and nurses and attendants work. She's trailed along with her mother since she was ten years old, and still finds every new piece of information interesting. Every procedure she gets to sit in on, every lecture she hears, every new diagnosis.

She loves watching the births. Her mother first let her see one when she was thirteen and she got to assist the next year. There aren't all that many every year—the birth rate is heavily controlled—so each one is special and amazing.

She enjoys sitting with patients and talking with them, keeping them calm when blood tests and diagnostics are being run. At sixteen, she's put on rotation with the other medical apprentice volunteers, running the night shift.

For the most part, Clarke is content with the way she envisions her future to be. She'll say yes to her unknown husband when the time comes, and she'll become a doctor like her mother. They'll have a happy life, and maybe, one day, she'll have one of those babies of her own that she sometimes gets to see be born.

The only thing that weighs heavy on her soul is the death. Sometimes they can't cure a patient of whatever ailment they come into medical with, other times they might have been able too…if they had more supplies allotted to them per person. The wellbeing of the whole of the Ark is drilled into everyone from birth, it seems, and Clarke knows it's necessary to have rations on food and medicine, but she also knows that some people would benefit from a little bending of the rules.

One night in the middle of summer, as she puts in her hours during the night shift in Medical, Clarke's faith in the system is put to the test. A boy had come in two days ago with the flu. He was her age, and he looked so miserable. Sometimes she would sit with him when he was upset and no one was around, but that night, his father had stopped by, so Clarke left him alone.

She didn't know that, as she sat with an Ark maintenance worker who sliced open half his arm in what was probably a freak accident, the boy's father was still around. She didn't hear him move toward one of the medication stations. She didn't hear the lock click and the rattling of the bottle of pills.

All of a sudden, she heard the guard on duty scream after the man, and she watched as they ran across Medical. Clarke assures the man she's sitting with that everything is fine, and goes to investigate.

Reaching the scene too late, she looks first to the boy to make sure he's okay, then to the man on the floor and the guard holding him still.

She doesn't want to be the one to do it—she knows the penalty, knows what will happen, what that boy will have to live with—but she has no choice. "Oh no," she whispers even as she does her duty.

Later, after the guards take the man away and the cadet on duty leaves with a strange, haunted look in his eye, Clarke looks at what that father stole for his son.

"It won't even work," she cries to her father that night. "He's going to die for nothing."

Jake Griffin hugs his daughter tightly and says, "He had to try. He knew what would happen to him, but he had to try. Sometimes, we have to do what is right, even when others believe it to be wrong."

Clarke isn't sure if having rations is wrong, but she isn't sure it is right either. Even still, her father's words stick with her. Clarke will remember those words months later, after she tells Wells about what she'll later overhear her dad tell her mother. She'll use them to try to convince Wells to keep her secret, because the Ark deserves to know the danger it is in. She'll repeat those words to herself when she watches her dad take away and floated, and she'll say them out loud when she is placed in her cell.

She grasps the ring tightly in her hand and closes her eyes. She wants to say yes—she _always wanted to say yes_ —but now, she isn't sure if she'll be able to.


	3. Falling Through

Chapter 3: Falling Through

Time passes slowly in solitary and Clarke finds solace in four things: her father's memory, his watch on her wrist, the ring and chain around her neck, and the drawing pencils her mother had somehow managed to get to her in the first few days of her confinement. Clarke almost cried when the stiff-shouldered guard handed them to her without a word.

She never draws people. She sometimes itches to draw her father, Wells, or her mother, but she never does. As much as she would love to have friendly faces to look upon as she awaits her death, Clarke thinks it would probably be cruel to see them but never hear them or touch them again. It would haunt her to feel as though they're staring at her, but could not interact with her. Often, she thinks she would have broken this rule of hers, thinks she would give just about anything to be able to draw and see the man she was wed to when she was fifteen. But she doesn't know his face, so she can't draw him either.

Instead, Clarke creates a world around her. She imagines what Earth must have been like, remembering pictures shown during her classes, and brings it to life around her. Plants, animals, insects, famous structures and landscapes—Clarke imagines it all and draws it with her pencils. Clarke thinks the guards didn't know what she was planning to do with the pencils, because each one during those first few weeks of rotations would often stop longer than necessary when handing out rations or performing inspections. Some even watch her work for a time before moving on. This silent audience is the closest to company she has while she's in solitary.

In a small corner of her cell, she keeps a tally of the days. The rations are too important a part of the Ark for it to function differently in the Sky Box, so Clarke is sure it's a pretty accurate calendar. The pencils were given to her on her third day in the cell, and she hadn't decided to keep a record until her seventh. That day, in a corner, she made seven small marks.

Months tick by, the marks on her wall increase in number, and as Clarke slowly approaches her eighteenth birthday, she forces herself to mentally prepare. While the review will happen, just like any other, Clarke knows without a doubt that they will float her just like they did her father. In her case, as with others she is now sure, the review is simply a formality. They can't risk her being put back into the Ark population…not if they want to keep their secret.

Clarke wonders if she'll get to see her mother one last time. She wonders if Chancellor Jaha will be there…if his son will be there. At this point in her time in solitary, Clarke is glad she never drew his face on her walls. He is the only person she told about the problem her dad discovered, so he had to be the one to tell the Chancellor—his father—what her dad was planning to do. She hates him for that—for getting her father floated, and for them locking her up here.

On particularly bad days, Clarke finds herself wondering if they'll bring her husband to see her get floated. It seems unnecessarily cruel, but at least then they'd both get the chance to know who the other was. Would they allow him the choice to opt out before telling him, or would they just tell him? Would he be sad at her death?

Clarke draws more fervently in those last two months leading up to her eighteenth birthday in order to cope. Drawing helps to get rid of the anxiety and the fears that increase with each passing day.

One morning, determined solely by the fact that she hasn't received rations yet, a guard interrupts her drawing. He asks her to face the wall. Clarke is confused. She's seen him bring her food so many times now, and he and the other guards haven't asked her to face the wall—like she's a dangerous prisoner they have to keep in line—since that first month. When he asks her to hold out her right arm, she starts to panic. She doesn't know what he's trying to put on her arm, but the only reason anyone would have to take her out of her cell at this point is to float her.

"No, no," she protests. "It's not my time. I don't turn eighteen for another month."

It's too early, she panics. She's certain of this. She's kept too careful a record to be a whole month off. She's not ready to die. She hasn't made peace, she thinks, and she hasn't figured out what to say to her mom or Wells or the Chancellor, if she gets the chance. She doesn't know what she'll say at her review. She isn't prepared.

She fights the guard when he tries to take her father's watch from her wrist, and hopes no one takes it or her ring and necklace from her. She'll die with them on, she vows.

She runs out of her cell for the first time in what she's certain has been eleven months and sees every one of the others being herded out as well. None of them are going to get a review, she realizes. Her father's problem is being dealt with at the expense of teenagers' lives. The guard exits her cell then and calls out to her. Despite knowing she has no chance, she gets ready to run. She has to do something!

Then her mother calls out to her and Clarke turns around. She hasn't seen her mother since the day her father was floated, and despite her instincts to the contrary, Clarke can't help but turn around and let her mother embrace her. She demands to know what's happening and asks her mother point blank if they're executing them all, but her mother shakes her head.

Her mother tells her they're all going to the ground—to Earth—and Clarke's panic increases. Her mother tells her that things have changed, that they're getting a second chance. She caresses her cheek, and Clarke's nerves tingle at the sensation. No one has touched her in so long. "I love you so much," she tells Clarke.

Clarke wants to say it back, but her eyes catch her mother's own necklace and ring, and her eyes widen. She grabs hold of her mother's clothes tightly. "You have to tell them I accept. He has to know, and you have to promise to tell him, Mom."

Her mother's face tightens and her lips purse for the briefest of moments before the softness returns to her face. "I promise," she says before Clarke feels a sting in her back. Her mother holds her tighter as blackness overwhelms her.

When next she awakes, she's strapped into a seat, and her right wrist stings from the wristband they must have forced on her after they drugged her. Wells sits beside her, and when he tells her he got himself arrested so he could go to Earth with her, she wants to scream or hit him or something. The voice of his father comes on all the monitors, and Clarke tries to listen to the only direction they've been given, but the connection isn't great, and one of the boys unbuckles his seatbelt and floats over to her.

"Get back in your seat," she orders him. "You could die."

She sees the defiance in his face, but he does go back over to his seat, but not before two others try to follow his lead. Clarke yells to the others to stay in their seats, that it isn't safe, and the Chancellor's voice becomes so distant that it may as well not be there at all.

Somehow, she does get them back to their seats just before the parachutes come out, jerking them around. As they fall toward Earth, Wells tries to apologize for getting her father arrested, but that's not good enough for her. "I can't die knowing you hate me," he tells her.

"They didn't arrest my father, Wells, they executed him," she bites back. "I _do_ hate you."

With that said, she faces forward. Her left hand briefly grazes her father's watch before reaching up and pulling out her ring. Clarke clutches it in her hands and closes her eyes, but not before noticing Wells looking at her hands. She doesn't say anything about it, and neither does he.

The dropship shakes and rattles. Clarke hears the kids screaming around her, but she doesn't see any of it. Her hand holds tight to the ring, as if appealing to a guardian angel to keep her safe.

Suddenly, all sound disappears. Everyone seems to hold their breath for a moment before reacting. Seatbelts start to click open, and Clarke's eyes open once more. She hurriedly tucks her ring back under her shirt and undoes her seatbelt before pushing her way to the staircase.

"Stop!" she calls to the man with a hand already poised on the handle. "The air could be toxic."

-x-

After his mother is floated and his sister is locked away, Bellamy is fired from the guard. It doesn't bother him all that much. He only wanted to be a guard to please his mother and earn a better position to later help Octavia. Now that neither of those applies, he doesn't protest when Shumway knocks on his door for a surprise inspection (the first in his life to actually be a surprise) and informs him that he'll have to apply for a new position on the Ark.

No one speaks to him; no one even really looks at him anymore. It's as if they're afraid to be floated for just knowing him. Bellamy thinks it's ridiculous; if he hadn't been floated for his association with his mother's crime—they'd said he was too young at the time, that he was conditioned to keep the secret—then obviously no one else was going to get floated.

In the coming weeks, after he's been allowed the position of a janitor, he hears whispers. They say he's lucky to have a job at all—lucky to be alive even. Some days he disagrees and wishes they'd floated him with his mother. Others, he agrees with them and is thankful that he's alive for his sister, even if he can't see her.

After three months, Bellamy petitions the council for visitation like most of the kids in the skybox are allowed to receive, but he is denied. He realizes then that he's in a very precarious position. It is within his rights to repetition, but he is also painfully aware that his position is also unprecedented and if he makes a nuisance of himself, he could cause more harm for him or his sister. Hating himself even as he comes to the decision, Bellamy doesn't repetition. He doesn't want to hurt Octavia's chance at getting out once she turns eighteen—whatever slim chance she has at not being floated for a crime she didn't even commit.

For the most part, the months go by slowly in a monotonous pattern. During the day Bellamy toes the line, keeps to himself, and does his job. Then, later, when he's alone in his room, his hand reaches for the ring, and he wonders when he'll finally hear about his mysterious wife.

The way he figures, there can't be too many months left to wait. After all, how young do they marry them off? He figures he'll hear soon, and has been steadily more confident in the idea of a future with her—whoever she may be. He has been providing for others since as long as he can remember—he could be a good husband, he is sure. Sometimes, he begins to have doubts, though. She's obviously not from Factory Station like him because the whole point of the program is to encourage unity between the stations. She'll probably realize who he is—a disgraced janitor from Factory—and decide she doesn't want a future with him. Why would she? Why would anyone?

One day, Shumway visits him for the second and last time. He tells him that his sister is being sent to the ground and that he could get Bellamy on the ship if he does something for him.

Bellamy nearly falls over himself to agree to the plan, even without knowing what he has to do. It is only then, after he's agreed, that he thinks to ask what he has to do.

"Kill the Chancellor," Shumway tells him, his voice hard and matter of fact. He hands him a gun, and Bellamy turns it on him. None of this would be happening if it wasn't for Shumway. It doesn't take Shumway long to talk him out of shooting him—the guy who got his sister locked up because he wouldn't let Octavia leave the Unity Day dance—if only because Bellamy hears truth in his words. If he kills Shumway, Octavia leaves for Earth alone. He'd never see her again, and Bellamy refuses to let that happen.

Bellamy doesn't hesitate after that, and follows Shumway out the door of the room that had been his home for the last twenty-three years. Everything begins to move quickly. He already had some practice with guns from being in the guard, and his determination to not leave his sister alone propels him forward. He is quickly and covertly guided to the Chancellor, and minuets after being told to kill him, he is pointing a gun at him. Bellamy only hesitates for a moment before pulling the trigger, his mind flashing back to Octavia's frightened face as they took her away and his mother's voice telling him to be brave for his sister, followed by her expressionless face as she was floated. Then, with the sound of the gun echoing around the room, Bellamy pockets the gun and turns to Shumway. "Take me to my sister," he demands, his voice devoid of emotion.

Bellamy is handed a guard's uniform, which he is instructed to change into. Only too happy to be out of the bloody clothes, he does so without question. Once he does, he is led to a dropship being loaded up with kids. His eyes widen when he notices just how _young_ some of them are—not even thirteen! His eyes dart around to find Octavia in the swarm of children and guards. Shumway's hand tightens on his shoulder.

"She's on the second level," Shumway says, his voice low and quiet. He nods upwards at the staircase and then to the guards escorting the kids. "They think you're going with them as their guard. Don't give them any reason to doubt that."

Bellamy nods, and they part ways. He stands around on the first level, watching the kids being strapped into the seats. Some of them are alert and looking around. Most are silent, not willing to make anyone angry, while others are talking with those seated nearest to them. Others still are unconscious—must not have come willingly. All of them look confused. Upon a closer look, he notices that they're all wearing wristbands. Bellamy tugs his uniform down over his wrist to obstruct from view the fact that he doesn't have one too. Finally, as the kids seem to be mostly accounted for, Bellamy makes his way up to check on his sister. Lying still in her seat, her eyes closed; she must have been one to fight back and not go quietly. Bellamy resists the urge to smile.

He heads back to his seat on the first level and prepares for the descent. The second he feels it, he reaches his right hand toward his chest and the metal ring hanging there. He silently apologizes to whoever she is; a sorry for not staying, despite wanting to, and a sorry for not being able to explain any of this.

The descent is almost peaceful for awhile. It feels like what he always imagined floating outside the Ark would feel like. Then the dropship starts to jerk a bit. The noise gets louder. The Chancellor's face blinks on the screen a little while later, and Bellamy resists the urge to roll his eyes. Not long after, everything seems to be going to hell.

The retro-rockets aren't firing and the ship is quickly plummeting to Earth. Bellamy closes his eyes. At least he won't be alone anymore, he finds himself thinking, at least he'll finally be free from the loneliness of the past year. A loose piece of metal inside the dropship flies at his face and cuts his forehead.

Bellamy reaches a hand up and winces when he touches the open wound. _Didn't go very long without being covered in blood_ , he finds himself thinking as he wipes it on his pants. Blood continues to drip from his head even as the parachute finally deploys and the dropship crashes to earth. It isn't hard enough to kill them all, and silence reigns around him. Even alone in his family's quarters, Bellamy has never experienced a silence this quiet before. Taking advantage of it, he quickly gets up out of his seat. "Stay back!" he yells at the kids trying to follow him.

He walks over to the dropship door and puts his hand over the handle. The moment of truth.

A voice from the floor above stops him. "Stop!" a girl cries. "The air could be toxic."

He turns toward her and watches her climb down the ladder. "If the air's toxic we're all dead anyway," Bellamy retorts, mesmerized by the blonde.

She pushes her way thorough the crowd of kids forming around him. Her eyes immediately widen as she gets a good look at him. "You're hurt," she says, her voice soft and her eyes nearly overflowing with concern. The girl reaches out a hand toward him and Bellamy backs away.

"I'm fine," he says. He moves to turn back to the door when another voice rings through.

"Bellamy?"

Bellamy smiles when he looks up toward the ladder this time. "My god," he says. "Look how big you are."


End file.
